My First Hot Yoga Experience

I forgot something pretty important.
I forgot that I don’t do so well in heat. Never have. I fainted in a shower once cooling off from a sauna. Hot tubs make me feel faint as well. But oblivious to this well-known fact about myself. I bee-bopped my way into the studio, sporting my new mat and my new towel and my new headband and water bottle, totally unaware of the hot hell I was about to enter. No amount of reading about the heat and the sweat could have prepared me. I went a little early, since I was signing up for the first time. That went pretty quickly so I proceeded into the Hot Zone. I mention this because as a result, I ended up in the heat an extra 10 minutes.

Oh. my. Gawd.

First of all, yoga is not made for apple-shaped gals like me. I’d at least get my forehead and my knee in the same neighborhood if it weren’t for my belly. I marveled at the poses and contortions of the participants. I can’t imagine ever being able to really do these moves. I mean, really. My first sip of water resulted in the instructor telling me something about not drinking during something or another, I didn’t understand her. Dutifully, I put the water down, and waited for the water permission to come…and it never did, and I nearly passed out. When I saw others taking water, I just took their lead. To make matters worse, my new water bottle, unfortunately, does not deliver water into my mouth as fast and desperately, as I felt I needed it. Sort of a soft, airy kind of suck. No good. I was also the only overweight person there. But no one made me feel uncomfortable.

The instructor told me at the beginning that my only goal should be to stay in the room the whole time. If she hadn’t said that, I think I would have left halfway through. My face was purple, my heart pounding and of course the sweat was pouring out of me. About half way through I was basically laying on my mat the whole time, staying in the room. Truth be told I felt faint at least half the time. But laying on the mat helped me gain composure and I endured, trying poses the best I could.

At the end, I scrambled out of the room asap and plopped myself in the lobby. The cold air instantly made me feel better. My instructor praised me and told me I did really well. I don’t think so. The teacher said that new people make the mistake of letting too much time pass between visits, that it’s like starting from scratch.